List of films banned in the United States
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
This is a list of films that are or have at one point been banned from release or showing in the United States; including films banned in specific American cities or states. This also includes cartoons, television specials, and films banned from being aired on television.
List
| Film | Release date |
Date(s) banned |
Reason |
|---|---|---|---|
| Stag films | 1896-1930 | 1934-1970s | Banned during the Hays Office Code for the obscene nature in these films, despite their being shown only in private parties.[1] |
| All Mabel Normand films | 1910-1927 | 1924 | On January 9, 1924, the entire state of Michigan temporarily banned all films starring Mabel Normand following the shooting of Courtland Dines, a wealthy oilman from Denver, that was led by Normand's chauffeur that sparked national headlines.[2] |
| All Charlie Chaplin films | 1914-1952 | 1940s-1956 | Memphis, Tennessee's longtime board chief Lloyd T. Binford had a history of banning every Charlie Chaplin movie due to his objection to the popular actor's private life. However throughout time, the Memphis area outside of the city screened his movies without a single warning. A few examples include the 1952 film Limelight being screened in neighboring West Memphis, Arkansas to avoid Binford's reaction. And on May 2, 1954, the First Unitarian Church in Memphis screened one of Chaplin's silent movies to a test audience with a capacity of 100 people. Binford replied that the church would "violate the law" if they screened the 1915 movie A Burlesque on Carmen. They did, the audience enjoyed it with heavy laughter, and there was nothing "morally" wrong with the picture.[3]
|
| Three Weeks | 1914 | 1915 | Banned in Charleston, West Virginia due to immoral behavioral content.[5] |
| A Woman | 1915 | 1915 | The Charlie Chaplin film was banned in Los Angeles on July 13 by film censors. Police were then ordered to seize all films being exhibited that afternoon.[6] |
| The Birth of a Nation | 1915 | 1915–1939 | Banned in several American cities for its racist content and portrayal of the Ku Klux Klan, including Chicago, Las Vegas, Denver, Minneapolis, Boston, Pittsburgh, and St. Louis, and the states of Ohio, Kansas, and West Virginia,[7] as well as "dozens" of other jurisdictions.[5] Unbanned in 1916 outside of Kansas.[8] Two dozen years after the film's release on April 20, 1939, the city of Milwaukee banned the movie by Otto R. Hauser, the secretary for mayor Daniel Hoan, because of the same reasons, calling the film "historically untrue".[9] |
| Purity | 1916 | 1916 | Banned in the state of Kansas, and several other cities across America including Dallas, Kansas City, Jackson, MS and Washington, D.C., due to nudity.[5] |
| Birth Control | 1917 | 1917 | Produced by and starring Margaret Sanger; banned, with the New York Court of Appeals holding that a film on family planning work may be censored "in the interest of morality, decency, and public safety and welfare".[5][10] |
| The Little American | 1917 | July–August 1917 | The Chicago Board of Censors initially blocked exhibition of the film in Chicago, describing the movie as anti-German and suggesting that showing it could start a riot.[11] Artcraft challenged the Board in state court and, after a jury trial, the refusal of the board to issue a permit despite a court order, and the denial of a second appeal by the board, won the right to show the film in Chicago.[12] |
| Häxan | 1922 | 1922–1929 | Banned until 1929 due to the inclusion of torture and nudity. Its themes of witchcraft and Satanism may also have been a factor in the ban.[13] |
| A Woman of Paris | 1923 | 1923 | Pennsylvania censors banned the Charlie Chaplin film in the entirety of the Keystone State because of its content, calling the film both "indecent and immoral".[14] |
| Babe Comes Home | 1927 | 1927 | Briefly banned in portions of the Chicago Metropolitan Area due to scenes of Babe Ruth chewing tobacco and spitting in the film. Mrs. Albert L. Stevenson, a film censor member, later recommended that "the censors do not believe that there is an inherent virtue in chewing tobacco and don't wish the children in Highland Park to believe that one must chew to achieve fame." The ban was later lifted.[5] |
| The Road to Ruin | 1928 | 1928 | Banned in Stockton, California due to its content.[15] |
| The Big House | 1930 | 1930 | Banned in the entire state of Ohio as both "racketeering and gangland" by the Ohio Board of Film Censors.[16] |
| Party Girl | 1930 | 1930 | Though passed[by whom?] for theatrical screening, several cities banned the film due to its depiction of prostitution, namely Birmingham, Alabama.[17] |
| No Limit | 1931 | 1931 | Banned in Riverside, California by the city's censor boards due to "notoriety", as its star, Clara Bow, was at that time present in the trial of Daisy DeBoe, a former secretary of hers who had been charged with grand theft auto in Los Angeles.[18] |
| 11 Warner Bros. short films | 1931-1944 | Since 1968 | Nearly a dozen animated short films, including Hittin' the Trail for Hallelujah Land, Uncle Tom's Bungalow, and Coal Black and de Sebben Dwarfs, were removed from television broadcast rotation in response to the Civil Rights Movement; they are therefore known as the Censored Eleven.[19] Many of these short films have since fallen into the public domain and have appeared on YouTube.[20] Restored masters of these short films were prepared for a DVD release that was cancelled due to declining sales for the series with which it was meant to correspond.[21] |
| Some Betty Boop short films | 1931-1934 | 1935-1972 | Some of the pre-Code cartoons featuring Betty Boop, including The Old Man of the Mountain[22] and Is My Palm Read, were withdrawn during the Hays Code restrictions for their sexually suggestive content. |
| Scarface | 1932 | 1932 | Banned in five states and five other cities due to "glorification of crime."[5] |
| Ecstasy | 1933 | 1933–1937 | Banned in the US from 1933 to 1937 due to its erotic content.[23][24] |
| 8 Popeye the Sailor short films | 1933-1952 | Since the Early 1990s | A total of eight short films in the series, all dating from the World War II era, had been banned from appearing on television for containing propagandistic stereotypes, particularly in regards to the Japanese people, that may be perceived as insensitive to contemporary audiences.[25] Some of the short films, like Spinach Fer Britain, Seein' Red, White 'N' Blue, and Wigwam Whoopee, were seen on the anthology series The Popeye Show on Adult Swim in the early 2000s.[26] One of them briefly appeared on Boomerang before being removed for its potentially offensive stereotyping and suggestively imaging a naked woman's silhouette in the shower. |
| Tomorrow's Children | 1934 | 1934-1938 | The entire states of Virginia and Kansas first banned the film, and later by New York in March 1938 due to its content which describes the film as "immoral and tending to incite crime and corrupt public morals".[27] |
| G Men | 1935 | 1935 | The State of Illinois Board of Censors banned one of the top-grossing films of 1935 in Chicago due to its depiction of the trapping of John Dillinger, which the censor felt might've made children "too excited".[28] |
| The Amateur Fire Brigade: A Parable of the New Deal | 1935 | 1936 | On February 11, 1936, the State of Ohio banned the anti-New Deal cartoon by Ted Eshbaugh after its request by the state's censor due to its content that seeks to arouse passions, emotions, and prejudice, and encourages disrespect for the office of then-President Franklin D. Roosevelt.[29] |
| Spain in Flames | 1937 | 1937 | The compilation film/newsreel was banned in a few states including Ohio and Pennsylvania, and multiple cities across the country including New Brunswick, New Jersey, Waterbury, Connecticut, and Provincetown, Massachusetts, due to the film's plot being reported as "harmful and tortured."[30][31] |
| We Who Are About to Die | 1937 | 1937 | The RKO film was banned in Orlando, Florida shortly after its release due to protests over the film being "morbid" and exhibited undue sympathy for the criminal element.[32] |
| Inside Nazi Germany | 1938 | 1938 | The March Of Time documentary was banned in Chicago because of its content. The Warner Brothers Circuit Management Corporation chain also refused to screen the film in their theaters.[33] |
| Professor Mamlock | 1938 | 1938 | The Soviet drama film was banned all across Ohio because of the film's plot.[34] |
| The Birth of a Baby | 1938 | Since 1938 | Banned all across Pennsylvania by the state's Motion Picture Censors, in New York City by the state of New York's censors, and in Cincinnati, Ohio by the city's manager Clarence O. Sherrill due to the film being reported as "non-educational" and as it lacked certification by the state's Board of Motion Pictures Censors. The Cincinnati Police Department's chief Eugene T. Weatherly later viewed the film and described the picture as "positively terrible."[35] |
| All Dr. Kildare films | 1938-1947 | 1942 | Balaban and Katz, Chicago's largest theater chain at the time, and the Great States Theatres chain banned all films starring popular medical doctor Dr. Kildare from their 100 movie theaters across Illinois because of Lew Ayres' behavioral issues. The ban took place after he left Hollywood to visit an Oregon camp in March 1942.[36] |
| Gone with the Wind | 1939 | 2020 | Briefly removed from HBO Max in response of the 2020 Minnesota protests.[37] |
| Hitler – Beast of Berlin | 1939 | 1939 | The State of New York banned this notorious film from World War II as it was "found to be inhuman, sacrilegious, and tended to incite to crime".[38] |
| Yes, My Darling Daughter | 1939 | 1939 | The Motion Picture Division of New York State Education Department briefly banned the Warner Brothers movie in New York due to the film's description and role failure. The New York State Board of Censors immediately got into big arguments toward the state's Department Of Education shortly after its ban. Censors replied that it could be "absolutely" okay and approved to be sent to theaters across the state, but some New York State Censors believed that it may set a "dangerous example".[5] |
| The Ramparts We Watch | 1940 | 1940 | The March Of Time documentary was briefly banned all across Pennsylvania due to portions of the film being termed as "part of the fear propaganda being disseminated by Germany", which demonstrates scenes on the German invasion of Poland and clips from the German film "Baptism of Fire".[5] |
| Strange Cargo | 1940 | 1940 | Banned in Detroit by Frank D. Eaman and Charles W. Snyder of the Detroit Police Department because it was said to have "a general spirit that is contrary to certain religious ideas."[39] |
| Fight for Life | 1940 | 1940 | The federal government's film about dealing with child and maternal welfare was banned in Chicago due to its depiction of subjects that the city's board found unfit for public exhibition.[40][full citation needed] |
| Pastor Hall | 1940 | 1940 | The Chicago Police Department banned the British drama film based on the life of German Evangelical Lutheran clergyman Martin Niemöller due to the film's plot and "exceedingly controversial nature".[41] |
| Two-Faced Woman | 1941 | 1941 | This film's theme (adultery) caused it to be banned in New York City, among other places.[5] |
| Scrub Me Mama with a Boogie Beat | 1941 | Since 1949 | Banned after the 1948 reissue for the excessive racist content as Walter Lantz stated that he would never distribute the short film on television.[42] |
| 12 Bugs Bunny short films | 1941-1960 | Since 2001 | Dozen Bugs Bunny cartoons were withdrawn from broadcast; they were perceived as being "politically incorrect".[43] One of them was already banned under Censored Eleven since 1968.[19] Subsequent releases of these shorts were limited to collectable DVD sets. |
| Ossessione | 1943 | 1943–1976 | Banned in the US for 33 years because the plot was based on James M. Cain's novel The Postman Always Rings Twice to which MGM owned the rights. It took until 1976 before copyright issues were resolved.[5] |
| Red Hot Riding Hood | 1943 | Before 1984 | Red Hot Riding Hood and all other short films featuring Red were not allowed to be broadcast on television due to the restrictions of the television code, which indicated that the character's scantily clad suggestiveness would not be appropriate for children.[44][45] The description of the front VHS cover of Cartoons for Big Kids from 1989 stated that the films featuring Red were indeed "banned from television". |
| The Burning Question, Mom and Dad, No Orchids For Miss Blandish, Without Pity, Woman Of Antwep, Gigi (1949 French version), She Shoulda Said No!, and The Paris Waltz (along with 11 other films) | 1943-1950 | Since between 1949 and 1952 | Sydney R. Traub of the Maryland State Board of Motion Picture Censors took over as the main chairman on May 2, 1949. Under his tenure, the board banned a total of 19 films in the state between May 1949 and March 1952. Almost all of the films he banned depicted hetero- and homosexual relationships, sexual content, drug addiction, nudity, racial invasions, extreme violence, and pregnancy. Several of the banned features were unlisted. Another film, On Polish Ground, was banned for reasons other than sex or narcotics. The board claimed that the documentary's representation of Poland in World War II was "false and fraudulent".[46]
|
| Bugs Bunny Nips the Nips | 1944 | Since 1995 | Withdrawn from circulation due to its perceived racial stereotypes. It had been included on the Golden Age of Looney Tunes Laserdisc set; three years after its portion of that set was reissued on VHS as part of the compilation Bugs Bunny by Each Director, a viewer, Michael Sawamura, complained to the Sacramento chapter of the Japanese American Citizens League after seeing it appear on the cassette without any text or narration notifying about the racist content.[48] This led to the tape getting recalled;[49] it was eventually reedited to replace that cartoon with Racketeer Rabbit, which had appeared on a similar set. |
| Western Approaches | 1944 | 1944 | The Hays Code banned the British film for "mild profanity", but the British Film Office responded with an angry note to the Hays Code that December, replying that they've been "unnecessary prudish" in banning the film despite being "shot at sea with merchant navy men playing in all parts".[50] |
| Wilson and Heavenly Days | 1944 | 1944 | Both the Woodrow Wilson biographical film and the RKO film starring legendary radio comedians Fibber McGee and Molly were briefly banned by the War Department due to both films containing material that was construed as violating provisions of the Soldier Voting Act.[51] |
| We Accuse | 1945 | 1945 | A documentary story about the Kharkiv war criminal trials, banned by the Hays Code due to many concerns and complaints about pictures of Nazi atrocities, as well as the word "damned" being used.[citation needed] |
| Brewster's Millions | 1945 | 1945 | Banned in Memphis, Tennessee, due to Brewster's African-American servant was treated too well.[52][53][better source needed][54][55] |
| Dillinger & Dead End | 1945/1937 | 1945 | Both films (including the 1945 reissue of Dead End) were banned in Memphis by Lloyd T. Binford and his censors due to both features being conducive to crime.[54][55] |
| The Southerner | 1945 | 1945 | Banned in Memphis by censors due to the film being reported as "giving the nation the wrong idea about the South".[54][56][55] |
| Scarlet Street | 1945 | 1946 | On January 4, 1946, the New York State Censor Board banned Scarlet Street, relying on the statute that gave it the power to censor films that were "obscene, indecent, immoral, inhuman, sacrilegious" or whose exhibition "would tend to corrupt morals or incite to crime." One week later, the Motion Picture Commission for the city of Milwaukee also banned the film by the chief of the Milwaukee Police Department as part of a new policy encouraged by police for "stricter regulation of undesirable films." On February 3, Christina Smith, the city censor of Atlanta, argued that because of "the sordid life it portrayed, the treatment of illicit love, the failure of the characters to receive orthodox punishment from the Atlanta Police Department, and because the picture would tend to weaken a respect for the law," Scarlet Street was "licentious, profane, obscure and contrary to the good order of the community." ... Universal was discouraged from challenging the constitutionality of the censors by the protests of the national religious groups that arose as the Atlanta case went to court.[57] |
| Duel in the Sun | 1946 | 1947 | Banned in Memphis due to the film's plot being reported as "mature throughout the film". Lloyd T. Binford said in a statement that it started with "two murders, then a rape, then a train wreck, and ended with two murders".[58] |
| The Martins and the Coys | 1946 | Since 1988 | The first segment in Make Mine Music is withdrawn from the film for the depictions of gun violence that were deemed unsuitable for children. Disney has since refused to release the film with this particular segment intact, even by request.[59] |
| Curley | 1947 | 1947 | Banned in Memphis by Lloyd T. Binford. He wrote a letter to distributor United Artists saying that "'[the board] was unable to approve your 'Curley' picture with the little Negroes as the south does not permit Negroes in white schools nor recognize social equality between the races, even in children.'".[58][60] |
| Forever Amber | 1947 | 1947 | Despite being passed in Memphis, the city of Grand Rapids, Michigan banned the movie by members of the Grand Rapids Better Movies council because of its content, with its past president of the council calling the film "a glorification of sin", "trash" and "unfitting". The ban came right after the city's Eastown Theatre screened the trailer of the movie with 250 members of the board attending the screening.[61] |
| Uncle Tom's Cabaña | 1947 | 1990s | Banned after the 1990s for the excessive racist content.[42] However, it made a limited release on laserdisc in 1993[62] before putting it in obscurity indefinitely. |
| Bicycle Thieves | 1948 | 1950 | The Italian prize-winning movie was banned all over the United States by MPAA in March 1950 due to the use of urination by a little boy and disturbing culture including scenes from inside of a bordello.[63] |
| Drug Addict | 1948 | Since 1948 | The 34-minute National Film Board of Canada documentary by Robert Anderson was banned by Federal Bureau of Narcotics commissioner Harry J. Anslinger because its clear illustration of drug addiction as an illness was diametrically opposed to his policies. Anslinger went as far as to formally request that the Canadian government ban the film within its own borders; the request was refused. Technically, 'Drug Addict' remains banned.[64] |
| Mouse Cleaning and Casanova Cat | 1948, 1951 | 2004–2025 | Two Tom and Jerry short films were banned from subsequent releases for their offensive blackface imagery.[65] Warner Bros. Discovery lifted the ban 21 years later.[66] |
| The Miracle | 1948 | 1950–1952 | The second part of the Italian film "L'Amore" (or "Love" in English) was banned all over the United States, as it was condemned by the National Legion of Decency, which termed the part as "anti-Catholic" and "sacrilegious". Shortly afterward in the middle of February 1951, the State of New York revoked the license to show the film from the state's Board of Regents. The ban led to the law's Joseph Burstyn, Inc. v. Wilson which led to a decision by Supreme Court in 1952 that the film was a form of artistic expression and was protected by the First Amendment.[67] |
| A Song Is Born | 1948 | 1948 | Banned in Memphis due to both its plot and racial content, which also featured scenes of both whites and negroes dancing together.[68] |
| Rope | 1948 | 1948 | The Alfred Hitchcock movie starring James Stewart was banned in Seattle by a censor board chairman depicting that the film appearing to not be proper enough for younger audiences.[69] The Naval Support Activity Mid-South also refused to run the movie halfway through its run for similar reasons.[70] |
| Lost Boundaries | 1949 | 1949 | Banned in Atlanta and Memphis; liable to "create dissension and strife between members of the white and colored races, and would be likely to cause disorders, disturbances, and clashes between the races."[71] |
| Bitter Rice | 1949 | 1951 | Exactly 11 months after the ban of Bicycle Thieves and The Miracle, police crackdowns and bitter Catholic oppositions led the state of New York censors to ban a third Italian film, Bitter Rice.[72] |
| Kiss Tomorrow Goodbye | 1950 | 1950 | The film was banned in Ohio as "a sordid, sadistic presentation of brutality and an extreme presentation of crime with explicit steps in commission."[73] |
| Stromboli | 1950 | 1950 | The Syndicate Theaters Circuit chain that served 320 Indiana movie theaters at the time of the film's release banned the RKO movie in the Hoosier State exactly one week before the film's release because Ingrid Bergman was part of the cast, and the Allied Theater Owners of Indiana replied by mail that she was discredited and failed to discipline errant stars.[74] The Interstate Theatres chain of Dallas also refused to screen the movie to their 175 movie theaters across the south.[75] |
| Domenica | 1952 | 1955 | The French film directed by Maurice Cloche was banned in San Francisco for containing nude sequences.[76] |
| Cease Fire | 1953 | 1953 | The Korean War film was banned all over the United States for a brief time due to the terms "hell" and "damn" being heard in the dialogue.[77] |
| The Moon Is Blue | 1953 | 1953 | Banned in Jersey City, New Jersey, and by all armed forces as "indecent and obscene."[78] |
| From Here to Eternity | 1953 | 1953 | The U.S. Navy banned one of the more popular movies of 1953 due to the Navy considers the film as "derogatory to a sister service". Meanwhile, the U.S. Army refuse to have its own ban when they apparently found the picture "good", which lead the members of the Army-Air Force motion picture board approved the film, while the Navy motion picture exchange usually does censoring jobs for both the Navy and Marine Corps. A scheduled showing was planned by the Navy, but that was turned down.[79] |
| The Vanishing Prairie | 1954 | 1954 | The Walt Disney documentary was banned in New York on August 10, 1954 due to it containing a clip of a buffalo giving birth. The ban was lifted after the American Civil Liberties Union filed a complaint against the local censor.[80][81] |
| The French Line | 1954 | 1954 | On March 3, 1954, the Chicago Police Department's Commissioner banned the Jane Russell movie in Chicago due to contrary to public morals and described the film as harmful to children.[82] Four months later, the film was banned in Lynn, Massachusetts by the city's mayor after its premiere at the city's Capitol Theatre because of its content. The owner of the theater was one of the attendees of the premiere before immediately calling the mayor on the phone afterward. The manager eventually pulled it off after its second showing. As requested, the manager replaced it with a double feature of Hondo and The Scarlet Spear as a replacement.[83][permanent dead link] |
| The Bamboo Prison | 1954 | 1955 | The Korean War film was banned in Memphis due to its "inimical" content.[84] |
| Game of Love (1954 French version) | 1954 | 1956 | Banned in Milwaukee, Wisconsin as pornography.[85] |
| A Song of Love | 1954 | 1966 | Banned in the entire state of California for containing hardcore pornography.[86] |
| All Speedy Gonzales shorts | 1955-1969 | 1985-1986, 1999-2002 | Right after the longtime The Bugs Bunny/Road Runner Show's departure from CBS and return to ABC at the start of the 1985-1986 season as The Bugs Bunny/Looney Tunes Comedy Hour, all shorts that starred Speedy Gonzales were banned from the program because of Mexican stereotypes. The move was undertaken before the program relaunched as The Bugs Bunny and Tweety Show, which introduced the Tweety shorts that were omitted from the previous package for unknown reasons.[87][user-generated source?] In 1999, Cartoon Network banned all of Speedy's shorts for similar reasons, but following a grass-roots campaign in part of Hispanic groups, the cable network lifted its ban on these shorts in July 2002.[88] |
| Lady Chatterley's Lover (1955 French version) | 1955 | 1955 | Banned in both New York and New York City because of its "adultery promotion".[89] |
| Blackboard Jungle | 1955 | 1955 | Banned across Georgia because of "politically incorrect content", including scenes of desegregated classrooms. Shortly after its ban, staff at The Atlanta Constitution filed a suit against the censors and took the case to Supreme Court in an attempt to lift the ban.[90] |
| Baby Doll | 1956 | 1956–1957 | Banned in Memphis, Nashville, and Atlanta due to the film plot's culture, which a member of the Memphis Board determines the film as "immoral." It was the first picture to be banned after the death of Memphis censor chief Lloyd T. Binford. Binford died at the age of 89 on August 27, 1956, and his death became national headlines. The film was intended to be exhibited in Nashville (via the Tennessee Theatre) in January 1957, but was banned by its local censor from being shown within the city; as such, the film ended up being booked for three drive-in theaters within Davidson County.[91]
|
| And God Created Woman (1956 French version) | 1956 | 1958 | Banned in both Dallas and Philadelphia because of its content.[94][95] |
| Portland Exposé | 1957 | 1957 | The film was banned regionally by local agencies in the Pacific Northwest, particularly in Portland, Oregon—its setting—due to its depiction of crimes inspired by those committed by crime boss Jim Elkins.[96][97][98][99] |
| The Immoral Mr. Teas | 1959 | 1962–1963 | Banned in Baltimore (along with two other films) for a 12-month hiatus by Maryland's State Of Board Censors on November 8, 1962 due to its sexually explicit content.[100] |
| Hideout in the Sun | 1960 | 1960 | Banned in Memphis by the Board of Censors shortly after the film's release in February 1960 due to nudity.[101] |
| Operation Abolition and Communism On The Map | 1960 | 1961 | The Michigan State Police banned both anti-Communist films in all of Michigan because of its content.[102] |
| Victim | 1961 | 1961 | Banned due to the on-screen use of the phrase "homosexual".[103] |
| Naughty New Orleans | 1962 | 1963 | An exploitation film on downtown New Orleans was banned in Memphis by the Board of Censors in May 1963. The censor, Minter Somerville Hooker, did not view the film as obscene but said she banned it anyway.[104] |
| Flaming Creatures | 1963 | 1964 | Banned in New York City because of sexual content.[105] |
| Promises! Promises! | 1963 | 1963 | Banned in Cleveland by the Cleveland Division Of Police, Pittsburgh by the Pittsburgh Police, and several other cities due to explicit nude scenes, though later the Cleveland court decided the nude scenes in the film were not lewd after all. The ban took place a few weeks prior to the assassination of John F. Kennedy.[106][107] |
| My Bare Lady | 1963 | 1963 | The 64-minute British exploitation film (along with one other exploitation film) was banned in Pittsburgh by the Pittsburgh Police due to its content shortly days after Pittsburgh's ban on Promises! Promises! The ban came before the arrest of two Cameraphone Theatre (East Liberty) owners after complaints from showing the film three days prior to Kennedy's assassination.[108] |
| John Goldfarb, Please Come Home! | 1964 | 1964–1965 | The Notre Dame-based film (along with the book from which it was adapted) was banned in New York by a judge due to the main characters depicted as "drunken party boys" before the film premiered around Christmas 1964 in selected 200+ theaters. Supreme Court Justice Henry Clay Greenburg called the situation "ugly, vulgar, and tawdry."[109] |
| Viva Maria! | 1965 | 1966–1968 | Banned in Dallas for sexual and anti-Catholic content, prior to the United States Supreme Court striking down the ban and limiting the ability of municipalities to ban films for adults in Interstate Circuit, Inc. v. City of Dallas.[110] |
| I, a Woman | 1965 | 1966 | Banned in the town of Mendota, Illinois because of its content.[111] |
| Chelsea Girls | 1966 | 1967 | Banned in Boston because of its content.[112] |
| Guess Who's Coming to Dinner | 1967 | February 1968 | On February 8, 1968, the city of Cleveland briefly banned one of the top-grossing movies of 1967 following three Cleveland area movie theaters becoming victims of stink bombs. Authorities recovered suspicious packages of two plastic bottles of hydrogen sulfide and acid following the incident which led moviegoers in the Hippodrome Theater alongside two other theaters in Bedford and Rocky River being forced to evacuate. The ban was lifted shortly afterward.[113] |
| The Fox | 1967 | 1968 | The town of Mendota, Illinois banned the Warner Bros.-Seven Arts movie because of its mayor describing the film as "indecent and not morally fit for anyone".[111] |
| Titicut Follies | 1967 | 1968–1991 | Banned from distribution in Massachusetts to the general public by court order because the film was considered a violation of the privacy of the prison inmates it filmed.[5] |
| I Am Curious (Yellow) | 1967 | 1969 | Banned as pornography. After three court cases, the ban was lifted when the anti-obscenity laws concerning films were overturned.[5][114] |
| Injun Trouble | 1969 | since 1970s | Banned for the excessive racist content after the 1970s, it remains unavailable to this day.[115][better source needed] |
| The Minx | 1970 | 1970 | Banned in Lafayette, Louisiana by judge because of its content. Judge Jerome Domengeaux ordered the ban and called the film "plain stupid stag film garbage". The ban of the movie also caused one movie theater, the Lafayette Cinema Center, to be forced to stop running the movie or forfeit $5,000 bond to the theater.[116] |
| Some Jane Fonda films | 1971-2013 | 2005-2022 | Isaac "Ike" Boutwell, a pilot trainer in the Vietnam War who would later become a Kentucky movie theater owner, banned some Jane Fonda movies in his home county of Hardin County, Kentucky, including Klute, Monster-in-Law, and The Butler, because of the activist role Fonda took during the war. The ban was lifted in June 2022 following his death.[117][118] |
| Bless the Beasts and Children | 1971 | 1971 | Employees at Brigham Young University banned the wildlife movie across their campus in Provo, Utah despite its GP-rating because of employees called the content of the film "too real for our people".[119] |
| Death of a Legend | 1971 | 1973 | The 49-minute Audubon Society-sponsored Canadian documentary about the remaining wolves in North America was banned in Florida by the Broward County Public Schools due to scenes of mating sequences as was reported by parents from two students who complained about the scenes.[120] |
| The Last Picture Show | 1971 | 1973 | Banned in Phoenix, Arizona as pornography.[121] |
| Deep Throat | 1972 | 1970s | Banned in Tampa in the mid-1970s as pornography.[122] The film was also briefly banned in Miami but was lifted a short time afterward in February 1973.[123] |
| Pink Flamingos | 1972 | 1972–1997 | Banned in Orange County, Florida, for 25 years because of explicit sexual content, animal cruelty, and depiction of its lead character, Divine, eating dog feces in the end.[124] |
| The Devil in Miss Jones | 1973 | 1973 | Banned in Cleveland by a Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court judge due to its explicit content shortly after its release. Prosecutors later argued that the film lacked "serious literary, artistic, political or scientific values" and that the film itself offended contemporary community standards.[125] |
| Manson | 1973 | 1975 | The 83-minute documentary on convicted murderer Charles Manson was banned in 26 California counties by a federal judge because of its content. The ban of the film came one month after Squeaky Fromme's arrest in connection of the attempt assassination of then-President Gerald Ford in Sacramento.[126] |
| The Thorn | 1974 | Since 1974 (seized in 1984) | Closed days after opening in New York City for misleading marketing exploiting the fame of one of its co-stars, Bette Midler. It was blocked from opening on re-release in 1980. The film was briefly distributed on home video under a new title before Midler threatened legal action.[127][128] |
| Coonskin | 1975 | 1975-1987 | Ralph Bakshi's blaxploitation film received backlash due to the Congress of Racial Equality having deemed it racist, resulting in the film being withdrawn from theatrical distribution.[129] Coonskin would not see the light of day again until it surfaced on home video with a new title 12 years later. |
| Caligula | 1979 | 1979 | A Summit County, Ohio judge banned the film across Akron shortly after its U.S. release, despite him didn't include a ruling on the obscenity aspects of the case. The ban was also issued because of four adultery-based companies, including Penthouse International, were being involved in producing and exhibiting the film, which led a movie theater in nearby Fairlawn to cancel its short run.[130] |
| Monty Python's Life of Brian | 1979 | 1979 | Banned in several towns for showing controversial themes about Christianity.[5] |
| The Tin Drum | 1979 | 1997 | Briefly banned in Oklahoma County, Oklahoma, when a district court judge deemed the film child pornography. The shot in question depicted a child embracing a naked woman. The verdict was overturned on appeal.[131] |
| Cruising | 1980 | 1980 | The United Artists film based on the novel by The New York Times reporter Gerald Walker was banned in Brook Park, Ohio because of the film's plot.[132] |
| If You Love This Planet | 1982 | 1982 | Designated as "foreign political propaganda" by the Department of Justice and suppressed in the United States.[133][134] Despite this, it went on to win the 1982 Academy Award for Documentary Short Subject.[135] |
| Return to Oz | 1985 | 1985 | The Disney live-action film was banned for a very short period of time by the Ingham County Library near Lansing, Michigan. At the time, the library had scheduled it and Beverly Hills Cop for a free film program, which was cancelled because of non-compliance with a recommendation by the school board that insisted on only films that the MPAA had rated G be shown at the library. The ban was lifted soon afterward.[136] |
| Superstar: The Karen Carpenter Story | 1987 | Since 1990 | Banned from circulation for copyright infringement after its original television airing by PBS as song covers by The Carpenters were used without permission.[137][138] |
| The Last Temptation of Christ | 1988 | 1988 | Banned in Savannah, Georgia when city leaders sent a petition to Universal Pictures requesting a ban. However, it opened in Savannah on September 23, 1988, six weeks after its national and worldwide debut.[139] The film was also banned in Louisville, Kentucky by the Louisville division of the Washington, D.C.-based Traditional Values Coalition.[140] |
| Hollyrock-a-Bye Baby | 1993 | 1993-2001, 2003-2012 | Banned after the initial broadcast for its questionable content in a children's movie and remained unseen on television for nearly a decade.[141] Then was withdrawn again until it surfaced on DVD in 2012. |
| The Santa Clause | 1994 | 1996-1999 | Confiscated from the markets due to an incident caused by a little child from Steilacoom, Washington making a phone call that was taken from one point in the film, which turned out to be an actual sex line number, incurring a $400 phone bill.[142] The film returned to the markets much later with the number removed. |
| Stolen Memories: Secrets from the Rose Garden | 1996 | Since 1996 | Banned after its initial broadcast for the depictions of racial atrocities and child murder attempts as declared "unsuitable for television".[143] |
| Belly | 1998 | 1998 | The film about the rise-and-fall of two violent criminals was banned from the Magic Johnson Theatres chain due to concerns regarding the film's overwhelmingly negative and violent depictions of African-Americans alongside its potential to incite disruptive behavior at their theaters in Los Angeles, Houston, and Atlanta.[144] |
| The Lion King II: Simba's Pride | 1998 | 2002-2004 | Pulled from television rotation due to the dark subject matter, which is edited for subsequent release.[145] |
| Toy Story 2 | 1999 | 2018-2019 | Briefly pulled from television rotation during the MeToo movement due to a scene during the mid-credits in which the Prospector interacts with a group of Barbie dolls in a manner reminiscent of a sexual harassment scandal involving the film's executive producer, John Lasseter. That scene was later removed from the credits altogether.[146] |
| Cry Baby Lane | 2000 | 2000-2011 (alleged ban) | Aired on Nickelodeon in October 2000. It was not seen after its initial broadcast as it received backlash by parents disapproving the film's themes that were deemed unsuitable for the attending audiences, led to the result of being banned from subsequent showings. It was then responded that Nickelodeon merely forgotten the film, resulting its absence for 11 years. The tape was found and uploaded on Reddit in 2011.[147] Another Nickelodeon film, The Electric Piper, was not seen after its second run in 2003[148] and was also mistaken as a banned film as Nickelodeon responded to have forgotten it as well. |
| The Profit | 2001 | 2002–2007 | A film that borrows elements of the life of L. Ron Hubbard, it was prevented from release when the Church of Scientology claimed the film could taint the jury pool in the wrongful death trial of former member Lisa McPherson. While the injunction has since been lifted a few years after the suit was settled and the film is no longer banned per se, a legal dispute with investor Robert S. Minton continues to hold up the release. The Disinformation Book of Lists and The Times have characterized The Profit as a "banned film" in the United States.[5][149] |
| Ernest and Bertram | 2002 | Since 2002 | Gay parody of Ernie and Bert was confiscated when Sesame Workshop served the film's producers with a cease and desist order for violating the use of Sesame Street characters.[150] |
| Arthur: It's Only Rock 'n' Roll | 2002 | Since 2004 | This Arthur special is no longer seen in circulation two years after its release as Cookie Jar Group opt not to renew this special after CINAR's folding[151] due to copyright restrictions. This special has been displayed on Amazon Prime Video, but subsequent purchases has since been disabled.[152] |
| The Aristocrats | 2005 | 2005 | AMC Theatres refused to screen the movie in all of their theaters because of both vulgar language and a matter of commercial considerations.[153] |
| Death of a President | 2006 | 2006 | Shortly after the mockumentary film's release in Canada and the United Kingdom, many American movie theater chains including AMC, Regal, Carmike, and Cinemark refused to run the controversial British feature and banned it due to its depiction of a fictional incident in which then-President George W. Bush was assassinated. Regal's president Dick Westerling replied that "we do not feel it is appropriate to portray the future assassination of a president". At the same time, CNN and the National Public Radio announced that neither network would accept commercials for the film due to its extreme nature.[154] |
| Hounddog | 2007 | 2007-2008 | After the screening at Sundance Film Festival in January 2007, the film was withheld from being theatrically released since Dakota Fanning was involved in a part of the movie's rape scene when she was 12, receiving intense controversy.[155] The ban was lifted in September the following year.[156][157] The film was boycotted from theaters by the protest of concerned mothers days after the release, citing that the damage has already been done to the child actress.[158] The film did receive a home video release after the theatrical screening. |
| Hillary: The Movie | 2008 | 2008 | A political documentary about presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, it was prevented by the Federal Election Commission from being aired on video-on-demand on cable TV shortly before the 2008 Democratic primaries as an "electioneering communication" mentioning a candidate within 30 days of a primary, an apparent violation of the 2002 Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act (aka "McCain-Feingold"). The ban, and much of the BCRA, was then overturned by the Supreme Court in the case Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission.[159] |
| Bill Cosby 77 | Unreleased | Since 2014 | It was scheduled to be released on the streaming service Netflix on November 28, 2014. However, it was cancelled and shelved in response of the Bill Cosby sexual assault cases 10 days before the scheduling date,[160] considering it banned.[161] |
| Beauty and the Beast (2017 version) | 2017 | 2017 | A drive-in theater operator for the Henagar Drive-In in Henagar, Alabama refused to screen the Disney movie due to backlash over a gay character appearing in the movie as well as a same-sex scene by the same actor.[162][163] |